Hiding all day, not eating

[I_12517]

What's wrong with my tortoise? Am I doing something wrong? Does she need to go to the vet?

I have a Russian tortoise that is about 6-7 years old. Recently (the last few weeks) she has been hiding/burrowing all day and not eating. She is usually very active but gets less so in the winter even though I keep her inside with a basking bulb and do not hibernate her. The last two years I've had her she did not get less active this early in the year. I did stop taking her outside in her outdoor enclosure earlier this year than the last few years. I'm going to try to put her outside again this weekend to see if anything changes.

Is there something I'm doing wrong that could cause her to act like this?

-Temp- Basking- 90F; 70-72 away from hear bulb. Low to mid 60s at night
-She has UVB (not coil type; about 1 ft. away)
-Diet (when she used to eat)- endive, escarole, radicchio, clover, dandelion, tortoise hay from tortoisesupply.com, other plants from the broadleaf mix from tortoisesupply (she does not like those as much though), occasionally some Mazuri)
-Substrate- it was coco chips mixed with cypress mulch but I changed it to cypress mulch and orchid bark about a month ago
-I haven't seen her poop recently but she also hasn't really eaten
-I've tried soaking her, it did not help

I tried putting a picture of her enclosure her, not sure if it will work or not

Do you think I should have another heat bulb to make the basking spot bigger?

 

[Tom]

I have a Russian tortoise that is about 6-7 years old. Recently (the last few weeks) she has been hiding/burrowing all day and not eating. She is usually very active but gets less so in the winter even though I keep her inside with a basking bulb and do not hibernate her. The last two years I've had her she did not get less active this early in the year. I did stop taking her outside in her outdoor enclosure earlier this year than the last few years. I'm going to try to put her outside again this weekend to see if anything changes.

Is there something I'm doing wrong that could cause her to act like this?

-Temp- Basking- 90F; 70-72 away from hear bulb. Low to mid 60s at night
-She has UVB (not coil type; about 1 ft. away)
-Diet (when she used to eat)- endive, escarole, radicchio, clover, dandelion, tortoise hay from tortoisesupply.com, other plants from the broadleaf mix from tortoisesupply (she does not like those as much though), occasionally some Mazuri)
-Substrate- it was coco chips mixed with cypress mulch but I changed it to cypress mulch and orchid bark about a month ago
-I haven't seen her poop recently but she also hasn't really eaten
-I've tried soaking her, it did not help

I tried putting a picture of her enclosure her, not sure if it will work or not

Do you think I should have another heat bulb to make the basking spot bigger?

This is all meant to help and answer your questions:
1. That enclosure is WAY too small for a Russian tortoise.
2. Basking area needs to be around 100.
3. What type of UV tube is in that fixture?
4. You should be soaking at least a couple of times a week, every week.
5. Low to mid 60s is certainly acceptable for a healthy Russian, but since you are having some trouble, try keeping it a little warmer at night. Try for around 70.
6. You need to add an LED strip for more ambient light. You can buy a plug in one at Walmart for about $35 that lets you adjust the brightness and also the color spectrum.

Here is all the correct care info. Questions are welcome:

The Best Way To Raise Any Temperate Species Of Tortoise

I chose the title of this care sheet very carefully. Are there other ways to raise babies and care for adults? Yes. Yes there are, but those ways are not as good. What follows is the BEST way, according to 30 years of research and experimentation with hundreds of babies of many species. What is...

tortoiseforum.org

 

[wellington]

Agree with Tom. Specially the enclosure size, basking temp and over all temp I like a range of 75 to 80 which is hard to do in such a small enclosure. Minimum is a 4x8 for an adult Russian
Also, many Russians are acting the same. Mine is still outside do he is acting normal but once I do have to bring him in, he slows down some. Make the adjustments and keep the enclosure bright for 12 hours and work on adding on to that one or building a bigger one.

 

[I_12517]

I was told that that enclosure size would be fine for the colder months as long as she had a bigger outdoor one for when she's most active. But if that's not true I'll definitely find a way to make it bigger.

I think the uvb is this one https://www.chewy.com/zoo-med-reptisun-100-uvb-t5-ho/dp/257674 I could be wrong though.

For soaking, I try to soak every week, but I recently heard from a popular tortoise keeper on youtube that very frequent soaking does more harm than good. I guess that's also not true?

What would be the best way to keep the whole enclosure warmer at night and on the cool side? My mom does not let me make the temp of the house any warmer, and I don't know if a heat bulb would work because she hides at night in the very far back under the shaded hide area

Also I'll get an LED light. Thanks for the help, sorry for all the questions.

 

[Tom]

I was told that that enclosure size would be fine for the colder months as long as she had a bigger outdoor one for when she's most active. But if that's not true I'll definitely find a way to make it bigger.

I think the uvb is this one https://www.chewy.com/zoo-med-reptisun-100-uvb-t5-ho/dp/257674 I could be wrong though.

For soaking, I try to soak every week, but I recently heard from a popular tortoise keeper on youtube that very frequent soaking does more harm than good. I guess that's also not true?

What would be the best way to keep the whole enclosure warmer at night and on the cool side? My mom does not let me make the temp of the house any warmer, and I don't know if a heat bulb would work because she hides at night in the very far back under the shaded hide area

Also I'll get an LED light. Thanks for the help, sorry for all the questions.

These are great questions, and we are all here to talk tortoises, so no apology is needed.

You are discovering first hand that most sources of tortoise info are all wrong and parroting the same wrong info from decades ago. YT and FB are probably the worst, but pet shops and vets aren't usually any better.

That is a good bulb. It makes strong UV and only needs to run a few hours mid day. 12 inches is really too close for a good bulb like that. This might be the reason why your tortoise is hiding all the time. Too much of a good thing. Raise it up to about 18 inches, and set it on a timer for 3-4 hours mid day. Its best if you use a Solarmeter 6.5 to check the actual UV levels in your enclosure, because each bulb and each enclosure is different. The meter costs around $250, and it will pay for itself in short order since you won't be replacing perfectly good bulbs every six months. You will likely find that your bulbs will last and make good UV for years. Also, the meter is the ONLY way to ensure that your tortoise is getting the correct amount of UV, not too much and not too little.

You can soak every single day for 6 hours and it will do no harm. Many examples of this, like Galapagos tortoises literally sleeping in their pools all night. It is most definitely NOT necessary to soak that much, but this illustrates that frequent soaks do NOT do any harm at all, and actually prevent and correct many potential problems. Dehydration is a leading killer of tortoises. Regular soaks prevent that, and the complications that come with dehydration, like bladder stones.

Keep the whole enclosure warm by covering the top, or by running multiple heat sources set on a thermostat. Be careful and be sure whatever you rig is safe and won't start a fire.

 

[Yvonne G]

Tortoises are very sensitive to their surroundings and things like barometric pressure, length of days (even when indoors), nights turning cooler, etc. So, in my opinion, your tortoise is readying himself for brumation.